Who I am
by VanderbiltPages
Summary: When She wakes up, She knows nothing. A voice in her head guides her forward, turning her against the other ragdolls when She steals the problematic device in which everyone's souls are still captured. She ventures forward, following the voice and using the device to revive the others. But as time goes on, She realizes the soothing voice in her head isn't something to be trusted
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter one- The awakening**

I opened one eye. Then the other. Images flooded into my brain. At first, I did not understand. Who was I? _What_ was I? Brief images of previous knowledge flashed throughout my mind, although I could pin-point none of it.

 _You need to find a cure. You need to find the cure._

A voice nagged me onward, although I couldn't recognize who it belonged to, either. Was it my own?

I cleared my throat. Could I speak?

"Hello?"

So I could. The voice emerging from my lips sounded far different than the one in my head. My own voice was higher pitched, softer, scared. The voice in my head was deep, and commanding. Part of me feared it. Part of me loved it.

"Is. . . Someone there?" There was a fountain of knowledge sprouting from within my mind, continuously guiding my thoughts forward. _Move._ The voice in my head said. _Walk._

I mimicked the movements that my head suggested, slowly managing to stand. I looked down at my hands, slowly wiggling my small metal fingers. I moved my hands away, taking in the rest of my body. My feet seemed to be made of the same material as my hands, and a dark fabric formed the rest of me. Awkward stitches spread across my chest. I ran my finger through them, wondering if there was a purpose to the seemingly random design.

My eyes began to burn. _Blink_.

I blinked.

And I blinked once more.

Slowly, an unconscious rhythm formed within my mind, forcing my eyelids to open and close of their own accord. I looked around me, slowly choosing the easiest path to move forward. Everything around me seemed dulled, dark.

"Hello?" I tried my luck once more. Being alone had begun to feel me with fear, as the darkness grew thicker. There was something about the darkness. Something blaring warning sirens through my newborn mind.

 _Find the light. Or the darkness will swallow you._

Swallow me? The words made my fear grow rapidly. I held onto the voice's advice, and began to run. My weak legs caused me to stumble more than once, but I dragged myself forward. I could almost feel the darkness chasing me, drool hanging from its half-open mouth.

Light! There it was! My heart skipped a beat, and I forced my legs to move faster. The light danced just out of reach. _Fire_. My mind told me.

But the fire wasn't alone. Four small shadows surrounded it. One of them turned towards me as I stumbled closer. The shadow had a strange device in his hand. The fire burned bright in the middle of a circle, and at the edges of it, small pieces of fabric hung from crosses, with numbers painted in black ink.

"Hello?" I said, for lack of anything better to say. I did not know who they were. I trusted they were better than the darkness.

The ragdoll whose eyes first fell upon me stepped closer, his eyes packed with confusion. For the first time, I wondered what my own faced looked like. The concern in his eyes told me I did not look very good.

"Hello," He finally echoed. His voice was deeper than mine. Soothing. Far too soothing to belong to the voice in my head. "Who. . . Who are you?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I just . . . woke up. The darkness was chasing me so I followed the light. . ."

I wondered if my words sounded out of place. He didn't seem to care though. He simply nodded.

"Another one?" This voice was closer to my own. Although it was full of confidence, unlike my own fearful syllables. "I thought you were the last, 9."

9\. So that was his name. What was mine?

"Me too." The smaller ragdolls moved sheepishly towards me, their eyes blinking rapidly. They scurried behind me, then began to point at something upon my back. I quickly turned, fearing the darkness had caught up with me anyway. But there was nothing.

"She has no number." The female voice said, and I turned back to face them, frowning. That's when I spotted the numbers scrawled across each of their backs. 7. 3. 4. I couldn't see 9's back, but it wasn't hard to guess what number he owned. "Do you think the scientist made her too? Or. . . something else?"

"I don't know," 9 shook his head. "We'll need to give her time."

"Well. . . We need to continue with what we were doing." 7 said, nodding towards the strange device. "We need to free their souls."

I tilted my head to the side, trying to get a better look at what 9 was holding. I reached out for it, but he flinched back, moving it away from my touch. "Sorry. . . It's. . . This is dangerous. It's caused us a lot of trouble."

 _You need it._ The voice commanded me. _They do not know how to command it. You can do much better. It will lead you to the cure._

"The cure," I echoed. "I need to find the cure."

"I'm sorry?" 9 frowned towards me. I looked at the device, my hands itching to snatch it away. I knew I was fast. I had outrun the darkness. I could outrun them, too.

" _I_ am sorry." I said, and I was. I did not want to be alone again. But I needed the device. I couldn't ignore the voice. I reached out, snatching the object from 9's hands. 9 fell back, eyes wide.

I ran. I heard 7 cursing behind me, and I could hear her rapid footsteps as she chased after me. I forced myself to run faster. I had to get away. I had-

The ground fell away from me. I stepped on nothing but air. I heard 7 scream behind me, and I turned, reaching for her outstretched hand. But it was in vain. My body was falling, faster, and faster.

I hugged the device closer to me, closing my eyes tightly, not wanting to see the darkness finally swallow me whole.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two- Souls**

 _Get up. This is not over._

Everything hurt. It was hard to move. My left arm seemed to have stopped working, hanging lifelessly by my side. There was a tear along the fabric of my leg, which made walking all the more difficult. I did not want to move.

 _Get up_.

There was so much anger in the voice. And I felt compelled to listen. The voice was the only thing I had, wasn't it?

I stood, searching in the darkness for the device. As my eyes slowly began to adjust, I found it, bringing it close to my stitched-up chest. I began to limp slowly, not knowing where I was heading, but I didn't think it mattered. All the voice demanded of me was movement.

A shape began to form in the distance. It was small, as I was. As the others had been. Except this one seemed lifeless. Two feelings caught in my throat. One was sadness. The other, hate. I couldn't understand why.

Once I was close enough, I began to make out details. The small shape also resembled the others. A small tuft of hair stood atop the doll's head. Its skin was formed from striped fabric. One of its eyes was significantly bigger than the other.

The device shuddered in my hand, causing me to lose the small grip I held it with. It fell onto the dirt, snapping open without warning. I fell back, rather startled. Green light began to glow around me. I felt satisfaction fill me. I did not know if it was my own, or the voice's.

A green beam shot from the device, into the inmobile doll. Within seconds, the device snapped shut once again, leaving me back into the hands of darkness.

The doll began to move. I was filled both with fear, and curiosity. Could I trust it?

Once it had sat up, its eyes snapped towards me. It tilted its head sideways, judging me just as I judged it. Moments later, it smiled at me. "Zero,"

The voice was soft, both shy and confident. More like 9's than my own, or 7's. It was a _him_ then. "Zero?"

He nodded his head, a dopey smile tugging his small mouth upwards. Then he pointed at himself. "6."

"You're 6." I nodded.

Seemingly satisfied, his eyes wondered around, stopping when they reached the device. A small gasp escaped him, and he picked it up, hugging it close.

 _Keep moving. There's more like him._

I slowly began to understand what I was doing. There seemed to be. . . Life, trapped within the device. And I was giving it back. I smiled. Giving life. . . It couldn't be bad, could it?

No, not life. _Souls_. I was returning the souls, trapped inside the device.

I reached for it, but 6 moved it away from my reach. I frowned. "I need that."

He simply stared.

"Please," I reached again, but with the same result. I shook my head. "Follow me, then."

6 nodded eagerly.

I couldn't complain. The darkness felt a little less suffocating, knowing there was someone else by my side. Our progress was slow. 6 wandered around, running back and forth, while I limped forward with an agonizing rhythm. I felt impatient. No. _It_ felt impatient. The voice. I slowly began to discern my own feelings. And all I felt now, was pain.

"Zero!" 6 waved at me, pointing upwards.

I looked up, realizing that's the only direction we could go now. "Climbing. Pleasant."

6 snickered. I smiled. It felt good to do so.

The impatience inside me grew stronger as we climbed. With 6's helped I managed to do it at a much faster pace than I would have, had I been alone. I began to wonder about the others. What were their stories? How had they come to find the device? What _was_ the device?

I expected the voice to answer, but nothing but silence resonated within my mind. I guessed it didn't want to share any information it didn't need to. I could feel the answers within me, hovering just out of reach.

When we reached the top, all I wanted to do was crumble. But the alien impatience pushed me forward, towards the next shape in the ground. This one's face was frozen in an expression of anguish and surprise. One of his eyes was missing, replaced instead with a patch of thick leather. 6 placed the device close to the new doll, his eyes wide with hope.

"Friend." 6 said, patting the doll's small head.

The device shuddered, mimicking the same routine as before. When the green light faded, the doll's eyes began to blink, slowly adjusting to the world.

"Friend!" 6 shouted, his smile widening even further. The small doll before him stared in surprise.

"6? It's . . . It's really you." Low voice. Soothing. He ran a hand through his head, shutting his eyes momentarily. "I . . . what happened? I don't. . . remember. I remember The Machine and then I. . ."

The doll flinched, seeming to recall an unpleasant memory. His eyes finally came upon me. "Who are you?"

"I-." Didn't know how to answer. Luckily, 6 replied for me.

"Zero!" He shouted with glee.

"Zero? That's your name?"

"I . . . guess." The doll before me seemed to have far more vocabulary that 6 had. It was slightly intimidating. The more words he knew, the more he was bound to use to make questions. And I didn't have any answers. "It's what. . . he's called me since he woke."

"Woke? So you . . . Brought us back?"

"Well," I pointed at the device, which had found its home back within 6's arms. "The device did."

"Oh. . . Well, Zero, I'm 5."

"5," I echoed, nodding my head.

"Do you know where the others are?"

Ah. Something I _did_ know. Although I wasn't to eager to return, seeing as to how I'd stolen the device. I pointed across the broken bridge. "They're on the other side. I. . took this from them. Then fell. That's where I found 6."

 _There is yet two more. You must continue._

I held back the urge to keep moving. 5 looked across the small abyss, frowning with worry. Then, as the rest of my words settled, he turned back towards me. "You _took_ it from them? Why?"


End file.
